Native to Vietnam Native speakers 37,000 (2002) | Ethnicity Yi Writing system Yi script | |
Language family Sino-Tibetan
Lolo-Burmese
Mondzish
Mantsi ISO 639-3 Either:
nty – Mantsi
yso – Nisi | ||
Mantsi (autonym: mã˥˧ tsi˥˧; also called Lolo, Flowery Lolo, or Red Lolo, is a Lolo-Burmese language spoken the Yi people of China, and the Lô Lô people of Vietnam.
Contents
Mantsi has 40 initials, 27 vowels (11 monophthongs and 13 diphthongs), and 6 tones (Lama 2012).
Classification
Mantsi may be related to the Kathu (Kasu, Gasu) and Mo'ang (mɯaŋ˥˩) languages of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, China (Edmondson 2003). Lama (2012) concludes that Mantsi (Mondzi) and Maang constitute the most divergent branch of the Lolo-Burmese languages.
Distribution
The Red Lolo and Flowery Lolo live in Hà Giang Province of Vietnam. Both speak similar languages. The language spoken by the Red Lolo was investigated by Jerold A. Edmondson in the late 1990s. In Funing County in Yunnan across the border in China, related languages are spoken by peoples known as the White Lolo (Edmondson 2003).
The Lô Lô ethnic group of northern Vietnam consists of 3,134 people in Hà Giang and Cao Bằng, also including some in Mường Khương District of Lào Cai Province. They are also known as Mùn Di, Di, Màn Di, La La, Qua La, Ô Man, and Lu Lộc Màn.
In Vietnam:
The Black Lolo live in Bảo Lạc District, Cao Bằng Province, just to the east of Hà Giang Province. Black Lolo (Ma Ndzi) of Cao Bằng is covered in Iwasa (2003).
Quoc (2011)
Quoc (2011) lists the following ethnic Lolo villages in northern Vietnam.